Mormon  State.

William Smith, brother to the founder and Prophet, now the self-styled head of the church of Latter Day Saints, asserts in a communication to the Cincinnati Commercial, that the Salt Lake Mormons will not be content with anything less than a free and independent government. He in addition states that the men named as officers for this government, are men who have taken the following oath, with others equally treasonable:

"You do solemnly swear in the presence of Almighty God, his holy angels, and these witnesses, that you will avenge the blood of Joseph Smith, on this nation, and teach the same to your children; and that you will, from this time, henceforth and forever, begin and carry out hostilities against the nation, and to keep the same intent a profound secret now and forever. -- So help you God.


Notes: (forthcoming)

                                                  St. Louis, Nov. 29, 1849.
Editors Ohio State Journal:

J. H. Kinkead has arrived in this city from the Salt Lakes. He left from them on the 19th October, with thirty-five companions and met with no accident. The snow is deep on the plains.

A treaty of peace has been effected between the Military at Fort Laramie and the Pawnees.

A new colony of Mormons has been formed, 700 miles south of Salt Lake City. -- Twenty-five Mormon preachers came with Kinkead. They are sent to preach Mormonism to all the world.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Salt  Lake  Basin.

MORMONS. -- The St. Louis Republican, of the 4th instant, has some late information from the Great Salt Lake, derived from a Mr. Forsyth, who had just arrived at St. Louis from the Lake, which he left about the last of September.

When he left the settlement the most of the emigrants, including all the early trains, had gone forward to California. Of this number was Gen. Wilson, as Indian agent, and his party. A number of emigrants, however, expected to pass the winter at Salt Lake City and Fort Bridger. The Mormons, Mr. Forsyth says, have discovered a route occupying only some twenty or thirty days to cross the desert; and Sierra Nevada, on which there is an abundance of wood and water at every stage, and of easy crossing. Parties of Mormons had made the whole distance from the Sacramento to the Salt Lake, with packed mules, in fifteen days.

Major Stansberry, on the U. S. topographical corps, with his party, had arrived in the Great Basin. It was understood that, under orders of the United States government, he would make a survey of the Lost Lake and the various streams traversing the Salt Basin. His mission was not favorably regarded by the settlers.

Money was plenty in the Basin, and to this may be added the fact that the Mormons have established a mint of their own, at which a large amount of the California gold dust has been coined. They have issued coin of various denominations, to the amount of $20 pieces.


Notes: (forthcoming)

                  From the Washington Republic.
The Mormons of Deseret.

The readers of this paper have doubtless noticed, in the Congressional proceedings, the presentation in the Senate on Monday last, of a memorial of Wm. Smith and Isaac Sheen, claiming to be the legitimate presidents of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, and twelve other individuals of that community, now settled in the valley of the Salt Lake, with having taken an oath to avenge on the people and Government of this country, the murder of Joseph Smith, and with a determination now to carry that oath in[to] effect; and further accusing them of grossly immoral conduct, by adopting the doctrine of polygamy, &c.

Now, in relation to this matter, it is not improbable that these charges are exagerated and untrue, and such as could not stand the test of calm judicial investigation. We have no sympathies or regards for this Mormon people; but, judging from what we have formerly heard and latterly known of them, we deem these accusations to be entirely absurd and impossible.

In the first place, if we remember aright, this Wm. Smith, the first petitioner, is a brother of the celebrated Joseph Smith, who originally presided over the Mormons. At the time of Joseph's death, he presented himself to the Mormons, claiming to be the legitimate successor of his deceased brother; but the Mormon people refused to recognize him in that capacity. But, as we have been informed, inasmuch as he was a brother of one who was highly cherished among them, they consented to afford him protection and sustenance for a time; but his conduct at length becoming, as they allege, more and more dissolute, he was expelled from the pale of their church. Smith's hierarchical asperations, his subsequent expulsion from the Mormon church, sufficiently explain his present hostility in that community.

It will be recollected, when the Mormons were on their way to the far west, fleeing from the persecutions which they had suffered in Illinois and Missouri, overtures were made to them by the United States officers, under instructions from our government, inviting them to join in the hostilities which were going to be waged against the Mexican republic. Would this have been the case had they sworn to avenge their wrongs against the government and people of the United States? We find them now knocking at our doors for admission into our Union, at a time when another populous and less remote community are in no hurry for such a consummation. Does this look like settled hostility to the United States? We think not.

The objections urged against this people on the score of their grasping for territory, and their immoral practices, we are inclined to believe, are of an equally fragile tenure. With Texas and California claiming an area much larger than they have actually occupied, it is not surprising that Deseret should do the same. We believe after all, that the people of Deseret will be willing to take such limits as Congress may choose to assign to them. Can the same be said of other States which have applied for admission or been received into the Union? As to the polygamy charged against this people, we consider it almost too absurd to merit notice. That a people, the principal portion of whom have been born and brought up in the United States, and the next largest [part of whom --------- ------- ------ ---- --------- --------- ----- -------] the constitution under which they ask admission as a state, than which we have not seen one more lucid or better arranged in any of the states of this Union.


Note 1: It seems unlikely that the above text was entirely the product of a non-Mormon Washington editor's pen. The overly sympathetic writer know far too much about the "dissolute" William Smith's activities, to have not been heavily coached in his writing about that former LDS leader, etc.

Note 2: In some years this newspaper carried a masthead which read "Geauga Republic." The generic "Geauga Republican" name is used here for the entire run of the publication, until it was re-named the "Geauga Democrat."

Reported for the Ohio Repository.

                                                  St. Louis, January 18.
From Salt Lake -- A letter dated Salt Lake City, Oct. 18, says the Mormons from California have brought much gold. All kinds of merchandize are high and scarce. There are only two small stores in the valley, which contains a population of 15,000 persons. The snow was on the mountains all around the valley, and at the South Pass it was 4 feet deep. A rumor prevailed that a band of Missouri emigrants had killed some Squaws of the Snake Indian tribe in the mountains, & in consequence that tribe were hostile to the whites. They had a battle with another band of emigrants, subsequently. Livingston and Kinkhead, traders at Salt Lake, cleared $10,000 in two weeks; having sold all their merchandize within that time. Mr. Rose of New York, sold $5000 worth of goods in 4 days. The grain crops had been good, and the country was prosperous.


Notes: (forthcoming)

MORMON  COINS.

The monetary notions of the Mormons at their Great Salt Lake settlement, are no less peculiar, it appears, than their ideas of society and religion. We have a verious curious coin in our possession, which is manufactured and extensively circulated among that remarkable people, and quite to the disparagement, travelers tell us, of every other species of gold currency. Of all the fanciful forms into which our golden wealth is wrought, this sainted shape excells in singularity. Its weight is about 15 pwts. Troy, its current worth, among the Mormons, twenty dollars. Its circumference is that of a Spanish half doubloon. One side bears the inscription 'Holiness to the Lord,' with the All-seeing Eye, surmounted by the prophet's cap; on the reverse appear the initials C. S. L. C. P. C., the grasp of fellowship, with the date (1849) and the value of the piece. It is clumsy, and in execution without merit.


Note: The precious metal intended for gold coinage requires the admixture of a small percentage of base metal, in order to give the soft gold some minimal durability. The Mormons, it is reported, were rather overgenerous with copper, etc., in concocting their mint alloys in Deseret -- to the result that they could make an immediate 10% profit, simply by exchanging their locally minted coins (having the appearance of gold), for the official (purer and relatively weightier) gold money issued by the U. S. Government.

Gen. James Arlington Bennett, formerly connected with the Mormons, has been arrested for forgery in New York. Several others are implicated. The morals of New York must be in a precious condition, as would appear from the following.

The New York Mirror, speaking of 'more astounding developments' of crime in that city, connected with recent arrests, says 'lawyers, merchants, and even clergymen' are suspected of being mixed up in 'business transactions' with these counterfeiters, thieves, and assassins; and there is no knowing where the lightning of justice will strike next.


Note 1: James A. Bennet (or Bennett) was reportedly baptized by Brigham Young, on a beach of the Atlantic Ocean, during the mid-1840s. Bennet later repudiated the event as a sort of joke upon Brigham. According to Elder Lyndon Cook's 1980 book, The Words of Joseph Smith, James A. Bennet's baptism as an LDS came in 1843.

Note 2: Bennet was Smith's initial choice as a running mate in his ill-fated bid for the U. S. Presidency in 1844. In 1845 the Quincy Whig said of Bennet: "He has recently been among them [the Mormons] and in his bombastic manner, told the Mormons what he could do with 20 pieces of cannon and 12 or 15,000 men... If 'Gen. James Arlington Bennett,' is the brave and skillful officer he boasts, why does he not stay with his valiant friends, the Mormons, and control their actions? His Generalship is all displayed on paper." -- After the twelve "benevolent heads" running the LDS Church made it clear to Bennet that he could not assume a leading role within the ranks of their Nauvoo Legion, he returned to New York, where he appears to have forgotten his Mormon baptism altogether.

==> The new territory of Deseret which is anxiously waiting to become a Sovereign State of the Union, appears to possess a very liberal minded population; the Mormon creed permitting a plurality of wives. The President of that interesting Republic is said to have thirty. Elder Pratt, from Boston, more moderate in his matrimonial notions has only seven, and even one of them has run away with a California soldier.


Note: As far back as 1842 the public press was accusing top Mormon leaders of practicing bigamy, adultery or polygamy, under the guise of "peculiar" religious teachings. The Church officials denied these allegations prior to their leaving Nauvoo, and for several years thereafter. But, while on the trail west, and once settled at Salt Lake, the saintly leaders could not well hide their "patriarchal order of marriage" from prying Gentile eyes. The years 1850-52 must have been particularly embarrassing ones for truly honest Mormons, in that reports of LDS polygamy spread through the popular prints much faster than the "Lord's Anointed" in Deseret could issue sundry denials of their secret marital practice. Eventually all of this "lying in the name of the Lord" ceased and by 1853 plural marriage was a topic inciting zealous defense among the Mormons, rather than uneasy refutations.

THE  MORMONS.

A Mr. Snow, brother of Z. Snow, Esq. of this place, arrived here on Friday last, on his was to [Denmark?], in Europe as a Missionary. The Mormons appear to be prosperous in their new home at the Salt Lake.

Notes: (forthcoming)

==> The report circulating in the newspapers, that the Mormons at Deseret allow polygamy, and permit the most licentious and depraving practices, is pronounced by the Washington papers as totally false, and without the slightest foundation.


Notes: (forthcoming)

From  Deseret.

Late accounts have been received from the Mormon Country. Numerous deputies started upon their missions to England, France, Italy, Denmark and Sweden. They speak confidently of their success in these countries and where they place before the laboring population, such as that in England, pressed down to the earth by both Church and State, the prospect of a home, a portion of the soil to cultivate, and of a sufficiency of the common wants of humanity, it is not wonderful that they should be ready to embrace the doctrines of faith even as extravagant as that of the Mormons and be numbered among the "Latter Day Saints." To them any belief that will rescue them from starvation must be acceptable. The estimate of the Mormons is, that their number in England is now 50,000.

It is thought that very few of the emigrants to California will winter in the Valley of the Salt Lake; those who were too late for the northern route, took the southern, and but few are left.

Goods of every description are needed much in the Valley, and would meet with a ready sale. There is gold enough among them to pay for all goods sent to them. Cows and sheep, if young and healtrhy, bring a good price and are much sought for. Chickens and hogs they have in plenty, but not many turkeys or geese. The emigration from Iowa to Deseret will, probably, next summer double its present population.

---

The Mormons of Salt Lake.

A Correspondent of the New Orleans Crescent , of the 18th inst., writing from Salt Lake and speaking of the people says:

They are from every state of the Union -- healthy, though pale and poor about the face, cheek [bones] apparent. They are industrious and temperate in the use of ardent spirits. Probably one reason is the high price of it (as one-half of the selling price of liquor sold here has to go to the city.) They claim no allegiance to the United States, but call themselves Mormons and many think they are in a Mormon country. -- They are generally ignorant, and seldom think for themselves, except it is in driving a bargain, but appear enthusiastic as regards their faith. There is a great number of settlers from Alabama and Mississippi, who have come to this place with their negroes, and hold them here the same as they did formerly. The successor to Joe Smith -- Brigham Young, is about forty-five years old. He has the largest number of wives of any one in the settlement, only 26. This is not a large number, considering he had to take all the wives of Joe Smith that could not get other husbands. Some that have come under my observation have had eleven, five, three, two and one. These are facts, beyond cavil; and the only tie that binds these people together is bigamy. The spectacle is revolting, and in the course of a few years there will be a dozen children, all of the same age, having the same father, but different mothers. To what part of the world can they go and be respected? -- nowhere. To be a Mormon is to be all that is base and vile. All the ties that bind the opposite sexes together in mutual confidence and affection are trampled under foot by designing men, to gratify their own lustful passions, and the ignorant think they cannot be doing right without following the example of their high-priest, Young, and their twelve apostles. The Mormons have to give one-tenth of the products of their farms or other business to the church, and also the tenth working day the whole year, making twenty per cent, -- a pretty heavy tax most people would think. The object is to get as much money into the treasury as possible, so as to be able to carry out their plan, which is to have a line of settlements to the Pacific from this place, having its terminus in the southern part of Upper California, hoping to be able to diseminate their religion in the newly acquired territory.


Note: It is interesting to see that the top Mormons' polygamy was being openly reported in the public press at almost exactly the same time that prominent LDS missionaries operating in the eastern US and in England (like Apostle John Taylor), were denying the existence of any such thing among the Saints.

Deseret.

The Washington correspondent of the Journal of Commerce writes:

"As to Deseret, I have seen a memoir, or rather heard it read, giving a very minute and satisfactory account of that region; and it appears that, with the exception of some inconsiderable portion, it is a barren waste, and incapable of sustaining, at any time, a large population. The present population is only fifteen thousand, and the emigration for the next year is estimated at twenty thousand only. -- I learn too, that in consequence of the division of the Mormons into two separate and hostile sects, the majority of them will never emigrate to Deseret. The Mormons of Deseret are adverse to a Territorial Government, because they do not wish to receive civil rulers, governors, judges, &c. &c., from Washington...


Note: In some years this newspaper carried a masthead which read "Geauga Republic." The generic "Geauga Republican" name is used here for the entire run of the publication, until it was re-named the "Geauga Democrat."

  (Notice of William Smith's excommunication of Isaac Sheen
-- under construction)

 


Note 1: Although the full details and exact sequence of events leading up to the rift between William Smith and Elder Isaac Sheen remain very obscure, it appears that about the middle of May, 1850, William sent for publication in the Cincinnati Commercial, a notice declaring that Isaac Sheen was excommunicated from the Smithite church. Probably William sent this notice from his home at Palestine (Shelbourn) in Lee Co., Illinois, after he learned that Isaac had written a letter to the Hon. R. H. Stanton, disassociating himself from William Smith's various remonstrances against the admission of Mormon Deseret as a state of the Union. The Commercial had previously called William "a noble fellow," and perhaps he felt the editor would be a little sympathetic to his cause. Isaac wrote his letter to Stanton, from Cincinnati, on May 4th and it was published, in Washington. D. C., on May 17th. In this May 4th letter Elder Sheen had some very hostile things to say about "the hypocrisy, licentiousness, treachery, deceit, slanders, and lies of William Smith."

Note 2: Isaac Sheen's turbulent dissatisfaction with William Smith appears to have come to a head after Sheen received a letter from Smith, dated Apr. 18, 1850, and evidently written from Lee Co., Illinois. This letter, which was published in the Cincinnati Commercial of May 22nd, attempts to justify the "spiritual doctrine" with the explanation that "the ancient patriarchs had more wives than one," etc., etc. Sheen's reply to William Smith has been lost, but it must have been so hostile and damning as to make William repent with words like "I... offer my life as a sacrifice." William's repentance came in a letter dated "Shelburn, Lee Co., Ill., April 29, 1850," which was published in the Cincinnati Daily NonPareil on about May 21st. Sheen did not accept William Smith's repentance. He went ahead and wrote his letter to Congress, and Smith retaliated by excommunicating the disobedient elder.

Note 3: The context in which the split between Smith and Sheen occurred is explained a little on pages 14-15 of a booklet written by Sheen's son, in 1889: "In February, 1849, Isaac Sheen began the publication of a small paper devoted exclusively to 'lineal rights' of the 'Smith family.'... Through the visit and death of Otis Hobart it was learned that the 'devil' [polygamy] was in Texas [in Lyman Wight's group] and that William was not above suspicion. Father laid a plan to entrap him, and succeeded in getting a polygamous letter from William, who was then in Illinois. He immediately exposed... [Smith]; withdrew his name from the petition against the 'State of Deseret' and pulled up the 'Stake of Zion' in Covington... William's wife, Roxy, came to Covington and the result was that she gave into father's hands a lot of papers and books."

                        For the Cincinnati Commercial.

William Smith - Fornication - Adultery.

MR. EDITOR: The statement of the Commercial this morning, concerning me are incorrect. Wm. Smith has not cut me off from his church. I have cut myself off, and intend to remain cut off eternally from such a hypocritical libertine. He has professed the greatest hostility to the plurality wife doctrine, but on the 18th ult., he told me that he had a right to raise up posterity from other men's wives. He said it would be an honor conferred upon them and their husbands, to allow him that privilege, and that they would thereby be exalted to a high degree of glory in eternity. He said that the Salt Lake Mormons had no authority to do such things, but that the authority belonged to him, and that I might have the same privilege. He offered me his wife on the same terms that he claimed a partnership in other men's wives. I told him instantly that I would have no more connection with him, and that such damnable iniquity, I never had, and never would participate in. I did not wait for him to cut me off, and he has no church in Covington to cut any one off. There is no person that acknowledges him in Covington except Mrs. ________, a married woman. Wm. Smith says that I have become a Salt Lake Mormon. This statement is false. I acknowledge allegiance to no church, neither Mormon nor anti-Mormon. I have witnesses to prove that Smith's statements concerning the Church Records are totally false; his wife, who has left him, in consequence of his licentiousness, has either taken them with her, or has disposed of them. I can prove that A. W. Babbitt was an enemy to me at the time that I renounced my connection with Wm. Smith. I find that Smith has caused me, by false representations, to misrepresent Mr. Babbitt and the Salt Lake Mormons, but I have no connection with their church, and never intend to have. I have in my possession a letter written by Mr. Smith, in which he advocates the plurality wife doctrine. I have another letter written by him on the 29th ult., in which he asks my forgiveness for his participation in such iniquity, and has determined to forsake it. Recent events show that this pretended repentance was base hypocrisy. Subjoined to this communication may be found an extract of his Fornication Letter.
                                ISAAC SHEEN.
Covington, Ky., May 20, 1850.

---

EXTRACT FROM WM. SMITH'S FORNICATION LETTER.

"My wife says that she will not go to Texas for fear of the spiritual doctrine. I have told her better, but all to no avail. The book of Covenants I have not with me, but suppose you refer to the law on marriage, that says a man shall have obe wife, &c. The ancient patriarchs had more wives than one. This was allowed by the law of God, or it would not have been so, and for priesthood purposes in propagating a multitude of those to whom the promises were given. There are two kinds of marriages -- first marriage by the law of God, and secondly, marriage by the law of man. It needs no argument to convince you that marriage consumated by the laws of man have no binding influence upon us, no further than our discretion is concerned, and is a part of the subject that I will notice in another place. But one thing here I wish you to notice in the argument, as I pass along, and that it is no where said in holy writ, that whatsoever man has joined together, let no man put asunder. The works of man you know will not stand when the refining fire comes. God is able to break our bands asunder, that have not been cemented by the sealing power of the gospel. In Mark, 10 ch., 2d and 12th verses, the subject assumes a different complexion. The question is -- has a man a right to marry her that is put away. My views run with the text in this respect, also to marry her that is put away, for the crime of fornication, as named in Matthew, 19th and 9th, he is guilty of adultery; in case this marriage was consumated in celestial order, or by the law of the authority of God, the holy Priesthood Marriages are made in heaven; if they are joined together on earth by God's own authority, hence a departure from this covenant would make the crime [of] guilt. Thousands in this world live together on contract, and call it marriage, and now for the solution of the text, Paul, to the Corinthians, says, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. Then, of course, she must be his wife -- sealed to him by the law of God; but if she is unequally yoked and disunited in spirit, she then is not a wife, for no lawful marriage exists when the spirits are disunited. But it seems that Paul in the 1st verse of this 7th chapter, speaks of a crime, in its modified sense a little crime, and a little crime in the following manner: It is good for a man not to touch a woman, yet if he marries her it is no crime -- he avoids fornication. But in the 28th verse, he supposes a covenant to exist, as in the case of the thousands that now live, as they suppose they do, in marriage, yet are not married, not by the law of God; yet it seems a man has his virgin if he keeps her as well, but if he defile her, has committed no sin if he marry her. 12th v. says, if a man have a wife that believeth not, and she please to tarry, let her tarry. I condemn this saying, because they are unequally yoked, and this contradiction is too plain and palpable to believe that both sayings are from God, in fact, Paul says, that the Lord does not say these words. I say that if a woman lives with a man in disunion of spirits, they both of them are in transgression, and are guilty of the law of fornication.


Note 1: Elder Isaac Sheen (1810-1874) located in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1846. The following year William Smith, brother of Joseph Smith, parted ways with the Strangite church. Following this rupture with Strang, William expended a good deal of effort in visiting different branches of disaffected Mormons, including a group living in Cincinnati and across the river in Covington, Kentucky. By 1849 Isaac Sheen was acting as one of William Smith Counselors in the Smithite First Presidency, and editing its newspaper, the Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald, at Covington. In April, 1850 Sheen broke with Smith and became a Mormon without a leader for several years (see his letter in the Saturday Evening Post of Oct. 9, 1852). In 1859 Sheen joined the Reorganization and became the editor of its new publication, The Saints' Herald, which he published for several years at Cincinnati.

Note 2: In his Mormon Polygamy: A History, Richard S. Van Wagoner says of William Smith: "William lapsed into the same [polygamous] patterns when he joined the Strangites. Both he and John C. Bennett were excommunicated for immorality in the summer of 1847. Shortly afterwards, Smith formed his own church, in Lee County in northern Illinois. But his followers saw his religious polygamy as a cover-up for licentious promiscuity. Isaac Sheen, who severed himself from the movement in early 1850, referred to William as a 'hypocritical libertine.'"

Note 3: For more on the background of Isaac Sheen's religious break with William Smith, see John K. Sheen's 1889 booklet Polygamy, or the Veil Lifted. There the younger Sheen says of his father: "In February, 1849, Isaac Sheen began the publication of a small paper devoted exclusively to 'lineal rights' of the 'Smith family.' In June of that year a conference was held in Covington, Ky., and... a combination with Lyman Wight was made... William was not above suspicion [of wicked acts]. Father laid a plan to entrap him, and succeeded in getting a polygamous letter from William, who was then in Illinois. He immediately exposed 'the Elijah of the last dispensation;'... and pulled up the 'Stake of Zion' in Covington." At this time Elder Isaac Sheen also withdrew his name from the 1849 petition he and William Smith had signed the year before.

Note 4: John K. Sheen also says in his 1889 pamphlet: "William's wife, Roxy, came to Covington and the result was that she gave into father's hands a lot of papers and books." This interesting activity on the part of Roxie Ann Grant Smith is only slightly alluded to by Isaac Sheen in his communication to the Cincinnati Commercial; there Elder Sheen says: "I have witnesses to prove that Smith's statements concerning the Church Records are totally false; his wife, who has left him, in consequence of his licentiousness, has either taken them with her, or has disposed of them." These words appear to indicate that Roxie left Lee Co., Illinois about the middle of May, 1850 and eventually passed through Covington during her travels. While there (probably in the summer of 1850) Roxie gave Isaac Sheen William's trunk full of old papers and books. It was this valuable set of documents which William discovered to be missing from his home in Lee Co., Illinois, and which he accused Isaac Sheen of obtaining for resale to Almon W. Babbit, Sheen's notable Mormon brother-in-law. For more on the disposition of these papers, see John K. Sheen's 1889 booklet.

Great  Salt  Lake.

Capt. Stansbury of the U. S. corps of Topographical Engineers employed in an examination of the region of the Great Salt Lake, in the Mormon Territory, reports the following interesting facts:

"We found that the whole western shore of the lake consists of immense level plains of soft mud, inaccessible within many miles of the water's edge to the feet of mules or horses, being traversed frequently by meandering rills of salt and sulphur, which apparently sink and seem to imbue and saturate the whole soil, rendering it miry and treacherous. These plains are but little elevated above the present level of the lake..." [lengthy report on the lake and its surroundings follows]

The opinion is expressed by Capt. S. from the knowledge he has gained, that the size of the lake has been much exaggerated and its depth overrated. That it has no outlet, is demonstrated beyond a doubt, and he feels convinced that it can never be of the slightest use for purposes of navigation. The water, for miles out from the shore, is bit a few inches in depth, and if there be any deep water, it must be in the middle. The Utah river, -- the Jordan, as the Mormons call it -- is too insignificant and too crooked to be of any use commercially. The greatest depth of the Utah Lake that Capt. S. found was sixteen feet; so that, for the purposes of a connected line of navigation, neither the river nor the lakes can be of the slightest utility. -- Further examination of the Lake, may however, modify his opinion. The river connecting these lakes is 48 miles in length.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE NAUVOO TEMPLE AGAIN DESTROYED. -- A fatality seems to attend the temple at Nauvoo. It was finished by the Mormons in 1845, was nearly destroyed by fire in 1848, and on the 27th of May a tremendous hurricane demolished the walls. The Icarian community of socialists, under Cabet, had purchased it, and were engaged in repairing it, with a view to fitting it up for schools, studying and meeting halls, and a great refectory for a thousand persons. The workmen were engaged on it, when the storm burst forth with such violence that the walls came tumbling down, and the workmen had to fly for their lives. Those walls that remained standing had to be pulled down. -- The surrounding buildings were also demolished, and in the wash-house, where sic Icarian women were washing, there was so sudden an inundation from the rising creek, that the women had to escape through the windows. The community are going to undertake the erection of another large and fine building.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Salt  Lake  City.

We have been furnished, says the St. Louis Intelligencer, with leave to publish a letter from an intelligent gentleman now in Deseret to his family in St. Charles.... The writer dates his letter April, 1850. We extract only his description of the Mormon city.

"The Salt Lake City is situated three miles from the range of mountains which circles the valley on the east side, and about twenty-two miles from the great Lake.... The members of the Mormon persuasion are liberally encouraged to agricultural pursuits. They are allowed to improve as much [land] as they choose to have surveyed and enclosed in the "commons" near the city, and the pre-emption title they assume, is held indisputable. One man can, in this way, accumulate immense quantities of land, but the privilege of selling it is not extended to him. Either to reserve the right in the city... of themselves disposing of real estate, or to prevent other than Mormons from obtaining a foothold in the country, no Mormon can sell or bargain for a single foot of his land. I should add that, besides the very encouraging privileges of the commons, every citizen of the Salt [Lake] city is allowed one and a half acre of ground; having thus an opportunity of cultivating gardens, fine yards, &c.

"The city is divided into nineteen wards, each containing a half mile square. Every square has its Bishop, whose powers temporally correspond to our justice of the peace. The officers of the general city government are: a President, Marshall, Sheriff, &c., the first of whom is elected for life by [the] council of twelve, and the second semi-annually by the same body. The power of the President is unlimited -- his word in almost every instance is the law of the land. In the event of the perpetration of any crime, however, the council of twelve have a right to depose him. Since the murder of the famed Jo Smith, Mr. Brigham has ruled among the Latter Day Saints. He is much beliked by the people for honesty (so called) in office, no less for his social democratic deportment out. He need never apprehend a revolt among his people -- they are ever disposed to wink at his little errors, and to award him a full measure of praise for his virtues. I have known him pretty intimately since my arrival, and assure you, that if not a saint, he is at least an intelligent, energetic business man, and a very pleasant companionable gentleman...

"The Mormons are a gay people. given to music, dancing and women. They do not, so far as my observation goes, profess to keep the Sabbath holy, nor (despite that the apostles pretend to have secret interviews with their Maker,) do I perceive that religion has much influence over them in any circumstances. The followers of Christ they pretend to regard as heathens who stand the least chance of salvation. Indeed the Mormons regard or pretend to regard the creed of their sires which they themselves just forswore, as the most deceitful of all creeds -- they abominate it. The dislike they bear to Christianity is divided with [that] which they bear American Christians. The United States is seldom alluded to in other than an unfriendly, rancorous spirit, and Missouri and Illinois, you may rest assured come in for a round share of hate. In the councils of the people, this feeling is, from politic and prudent motives, in a great measure concealed. In society and in full business transactions, however, the allow it full play. I hear daily predictions of the most frightful calamities that are shortly to befall the United States. Its cup of wickedness, they say, is full, and the Lord will now visit it with deserts -- his vial of wrath will be opened upon it. It is firmly believed here that the cholera was only a forerunner of the greater evil which will follow, and I hear it ridiculously enough stated, that when the worst does come, 'Zion' -- the Salt Lake City -- will be the only one which can be looked to for security."


Notes: (forthcoming)

Interesting Sketches  of  the  Mormon  Settlements.

BEAVER ISLANDS. -- The Beaver Islands, situated at the foot of Lake Michigan, is the present location of the "Peace party" Mormons, (or, as they love to call themselves, Latter Day Saints) under the administration of James J. Strong [sic -Strang?], whom they claim to be "Joseph Smith's lawful successor in the prophetical office.

Mormonism, whether true or false, has gone forward in gigantic strides, being aided by the help of persecuting priests and biogoted people who will always aid in building up any delusion which the cranium of man can invent.

It has brought into its fold many thousand thinking people from various sects of the day, who seem from their appearance and energy, to be people of understanding and enterprise, who really believe their religion to be true, however unpopular, and are showing by their works the faith which they profess to have. Of all the gathering places the Mormons have had, Beaver Island is the best. It possesses the best natural harbor on the lakes, where all kinds of vessels here lie in perfect safety durinf the severest storms. It is very comodious and beautiful. There are some five or six hundred of the church already gathered there, having set good stores and one nice steam saw-mill on the Island. The interior of the Beaver is good farming country, well timbered with pine, hemlock, mountain ash, beech, birch, spruce and maple, and a great variety of other kinds of woodland. There are three of the most beautiful crystal lakes ever beheld by man. They are building a Tabernacle one hundred by sixty-two feet, in which they expect to receive their pentacostal endowments, which their prophet promises them, that God will give them when it is finished. The people seem to be very industrious, active and enterprising.

Their prophet, Strong, is a masterpiece of intellectuality; a thorough going man of good information. He was once the postmaster of Ellicottville, and editor of the Randolph Herald, of this State [copied from a NY paper] -- was a regular lawyer of considerable eminence before his appointment to be the Mormon prophet. Since which time he has had nothing to do with either law or politics. -- He devotes his whole time for the good of the people who he is president over. He and his people seem to be very much devoted to their cause, and say they shall make Beaver Island a second "Eden' for beauty and privileges. His people, each, are presented with from 40 to 160 acres of land, as an everlasting inheritance to them and their children for ever.

The Mormons are regular free soilers, but not politically so, for they say they have never been protected in their rights in Missouri, or Illinois as citizens, and therefore they will have nothing to do with politics, but "will be subject to the laws that be," and be governed by them, but will not help make them, and thus bring upon them another persecution.

Beaver Islands are blest with the most extensive inland fishery there is in the United States. White fish and Mackinaw trout are taken in abundance. The Mormons own two good sail vessels, and can do a good business in the lumber trade. -- All kinds of work is carried on upon the Beaver which is done elsewhere on the western lake ports. Propellers and sailors are continually going and coming into their port. The first class of large steamers do not stop there regularly; yet a pier will soon be built at the head of the Island, where they will all call regularly. Garden Island, six miles square, is one of the richest and most beautiful islands upon the earth. The Big Beaver is six by fourteen miles in extent. There are several more beautiful and well timbered islands which surround the Big Beaver; each about six miles square. The people have sent to Congress a petition for a grant of these Islands, and it is hoped that the government will give it to them that they may live by themselves and enjoy their fanaticism and delusion, if it is such, without molestation from any one.

---

Mr. L. C. Taylor, writing to the New York Advertiser, at the city of Salt Lake, on his overland route to California, gives the following account of the Mormon valley:

"I cannot describe my feelings as we emerged from the narrow defile of canyon of the mountain, and found ourselves in an open valley, smiling in verdure, and blooming beneath the cultivating hand of man. We had traveled a thousand miles over deserts. mountains and wilds. But here was a perfect oasis, with rustling wheat fields and green meadows, where folks lived, and the voices of women and prattle of children were heard. The Mormons are indeed a most peculiar people. They possess many traits which one cannot but admire. A more hospitable people I never saw. The emigrant is welcome to their houses, and if he is sick. out of money, or deserted by his partners, his wants are supplied and he is welcome to remain with them as long as he pleases. If any one wishes to work, he can earn $5 per day in the harvest field. It is not quite three years since the first emigrants arrived in the valley, themselves and their cattle worn out, scantily supplied with provisions and the winter approaching. But they went to work, and they have supplied themselves abundantly with the necessaries of life, and furnished thousands of strangers with food, teams and health to resume their journey with safety and comfort. The valley contains about 12,000 souls, and 5,000 more are expected this summer; besides this there are several settlements north and south of this, making in all about 20,000. They live generally in small houses or huts of unburnt bricks. Each man can occupy a small portion of land within the limits of the city and as much as they please to till without. Their government resembles somewhat, that of the ancient Jews; and, in fact, they seem to imitate as much as possible in every respect that people. In regard to their religion, I have not learned everything. But they claim to possess in their priesthood the power and spirit of prophecy and working miracles. Having lain dormant since the death of the apostles. it was [restored] in the person of Joe Smith, who was ordained a priest forever, after the order of Melchisedek. Polygamy is indulged in freely, and some other practices which Christians generally consider contrary to the spirit of the New Testament. Brigham, the high priest of the church and president of the state, has at present 27 wives, and all others in proportion to their rank. What will be the result of Mormonism, it is difficult to predict. They certainly are increasing very fast, and are destined at some day, to wield no mean influence in the nation.

I do not believe they can ever be a state by themselves, and belong to the Union. Their customs, laws, religion and inclinations are all opposed to it. What they ardently wish, and at some time expect, is a separate dominion where they can maintain a monarchy, or rather a pretended theocracy to suit themselves, for the revelations which their priests are continually receiving, pertain not only to religious faith and practice, but to their temporal affairs and their whole policy and conduct. But they say that Mormonism is destined to overspread the whole earth, and not till then will be the Millennium of the world.

---

THE GREAT SALT LAKE CITY AND VALLEY. -- In three years Utah has sprung up from a wilderness... (under construction)


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Mormon Colony on Beaver Island.

THE REIGN OF KING STRANG --
THE OFFICES OF THE LAW ON HIS TRACE.

We have a community of Robinson Crusoes much nearer us than most people think for. Two days' sail lands the adventurer on Beaver Island, in Lake Michigan, as completely cut off from the world during nearly half the year, as was Crusoe. There he will find a branch of the Mormon church, under the prophet Strang, who claims to be the true successor of the murdered Joseph Smith. Jesse has gathered quite a community in that isolated spot, and, judging from the tone of his organ, the Northern Islander, he intends his people shall enter upon and occupy the adjacent islands of the inland sea, on the principle that "might makes right." Beaver Island and the group are described as fertile and desireable, well adapted to the wood and lumber trade, and agricultural purposes, and in the midst of the best fisheries of the lake. The Northern Islander states that 15,000 barrels of fish were shipped from them the past season. Saint James is the name of the Mormon town, and a large emigration to it is looked for this season. Warren Post invites the "gathering" in Mormon poetry. The first verse reads: --

O come, all ye saints, without longer delay;
Come up to the Big Beaver, for this is the way
To build again Zion, the saints blest abode,
And anchor your souls in the kingdom of God. The Northern Islander also exhorts to the "gathering":--

"HO! ALL YE LANDLESS!

Come up to the islands and receive a perpetual inheritance for yourselves and your posterity. There is rich and beautiful wild land here, which will not float away, and you can have an abundance without money and without price. Land speculating is abolished here, by giving each man enough for his own use, without price, and treating all sales as frauds upon heirs, and therefore [---ities]. There is land enough in the world for all the people, and God made it; who shall deny each of his creatures a share? It is not done here."

From the close of navigation, last fall, to the first of April, no mail had been received at Beaver Island. The Islander, however, claims that the "Saints" had a good time of it in visiting, feasting, and dancing. This season a sailing packet is to run every week to Mackinao, and a large vessel is to make regular trips up and down the lakes for the transportation of lumber, &c. The Detroit Advertiser has letters of late date, which show and unsettled state of affairs in Strang's dominions. As the winter wore on, the idle fishermen became troublesome to Strang, and he had a whipping post erected for the punishment of those who spoke reproachfully of the Saints and the Prophet, or questioned his right to rule. The letters state that several persons were cruelly whipped with fifty lashes upon the bare back with beach and hickory rods. Terror was then spread among those remaining upon the island, and implicit obedience enforced. A man by the name of Moore, a Mormon, becoming disaffected, left the island, whereupon his property, real and personal, was declared confiscated, and was given to another, by virtue of a royal edict. During the winter, Moore returned upon the ice, and attempted to regain possession of his house and goods, but was compelled to flee for his life. He was pursued by Strang, but was rescued and defended by a small party of Indians, with whom he remained and passed the winter. Upon the opening of navigation, Moore obtained process at Mackinac against Strang, and taking the sheriff, with a posse of fifty well armed Indian warriors, went to Beaver to make arrests. Strang, however, spied out their approach, and suspecting their object, and with the royal examples of Charles II and Louis Philippe before his eyes, fled amain, and took refuge on a small island some ten miles distant. From this place he was driven by the sheriff and his aboriginal forces, who, at our latest advices, (April 11,) were still in full pursuit, having captured a large yawl, several stands of arms, and a quantity of military stores belonging to his Majesty.


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Territory of Utah has become the half-way house to the Pacific, and the Deseret News of April 8th, gives a flattering picture of the progress of events in the Salt Lake Valley. The Mormons are making great preparations to receive their brethren from abroad, and are establishing manufactures of the main articles necessary for comfort in this isolated country. The winter had been mild, and several grain and lumber mills had been erected...

The Quorum of "Seventies" had agreed to erect an extensive rotunda in Great Salt Lake City, to be called the "Seventies Hall of Science," and Gov. Young, their President, was appointed trustee and Superintendent of the work. Shares are fixed at $25.

At a special session of the Great Salt Lake County Court, on the 3d January, some few transient men were convicted of stealing, were sentenced to hard labor for various terms, afterwards pardoned, and permitted to go on their way to California. About three hundred emigrants who wintered with them, left for the gold mines this spring...

---

The Outrage at Beaver Island.

A deplorable state of things exists at Beaver Island, the home of the Mormon leader Strang, and his followers. Serious difficulties exist between the Mormons and other inhabitants of the Island, and depredations upon property and persons is enlarged upon both sides. Strang has established a code of Mormon laws for the government of his people, and his regulations are obnoxious to the "Gentiles," as he styles them, on the Island who do not acknowledge his authority. The Mormons too are charged with various crimes, and Strang himself is the subject of several indictments. During the past winter the dwelling houses of two men named Bennett were burned, and the Mormons were charged with burning them. They were residents of the Island before Strang took possession, and never were Mormons. The Bennetts were owners of property and men of respectability, and it is said that Strang had avowed a determination to drive them from the Island, dead or alive. The conditions of immunity were that they should become Mormons, and be governed by the laws of the sect. This the Bennetts would not do, and they were persecuted by Strang and his followers at times by much litigation, and at other times upon their rights and property without color of law, until finally one of the Bennettes has been killed outright and the other severely wounded. The account as given by the Detroit Advertiser, on the authority of P. M. McKinley, Deputy U. States Marshal, is as follows:

"The Mormons assembled together to the number of 50 or more, and proceeded to the dwelling house of Thomas Bennett, armed with rifles, pistols, knives, &c., and bearing as they said, a Mormon Precept, authorizing them to seize his person and take his property. Upon their approach Bennett closed his doors upon them, telling them not to enter, upon which they fired some 40 shots into the house, the effect of which was to drive T. Bennett forth to seek safety in flight; but when he had gained a few rods, he fell dead, pierced by rifle balls, and forty buck-shot.

They next pursued the other Bennett, who fled instinctively; but after going a few rods, remembered the condition of his poor wife, (who was alone in the house,) and returned to receive their shot just as he crossed the threshold. His hand was cut in two by the shot, and the wound may not be mortal. The fiends then took the dead body of Thomas Bennett, and dragging it by the hair of the head to the boat, threw it in, and compelled Samuel Bennett, the wounded man to follow and sit down by it; they then drove the distracted woman after them into the boat, and took them a distance of five miles to the Harbor, where they held a post mortem examination of the body of Thomas Bennett, with a jury composed of Mormons, with the exception of three persons, who were "Gentiles;" at which it was proposed by the Mormon jurors, to bring in a verdict that Bennett came to his death while resisting the Law!! while the persons who were not Mormons decided that Bennett was deliberately murdered. A fearful excitement prevailed towards the miscreant Mormons among the Indians on the Island, who hate and fear them, as well as the white population who are not Mormons, and they were retrained from executing summary vengeance upon the murderers only through the urgent advice of Messrs. McKinley, Bowers, Moore and Dinsmore, who had persuaded them to await the execution of the laws of Michigan upon the wretches."

There is usually two sides to a story, and such is the case in the Beaver Island difficulties. While the Mormons are sinners they are often sinned against, as the history of this singular sect for twenty years attests, and no doubt blame attaches to both sides in the late melancholy affair. The Prosecuting Attorney of Mackinac county has sent a letter to Detroit, enclosing the findings of the Coroner's Jury, in which the Detroit Free Press says he "acquits the Mormons of any blame in that most unfortunate transaction."

---

THE KING OF BEAVER ISLAND. -- The Detroit Free Press says five bills of indictment have been found against King Strang and others, by the Grand Jury of the U. S. Court in session in that city. One for Counterfeiting, one for Obstructing the Mails, and three for Trespass upon Government lands. Twenty-seven Mormons in all have been indicted.

Strang is at large, on bail, which he found no difficulty in procuring. The general opinion in reference to the Beaver Island trouble seems to be, that throughout the whole, the Mormons have been "more sinned against than sinning." An official examination will, we believe, demonstrate the correctness of this opinion. His Majesty, King James, is anxious for a speedy trial, and manifests an unconcern in regard to his own fate and the security of his crown, hardly characteristic of modern monarchs. We have known Republican Presidents to exhibit less non-chalance.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Uath -- Polygamy, etc.

The wife of a U. S. Judge in Utah, an intelligent and pure minded woman, lately wrote a letter to a friend in Canton, Ohio, which confirms the statements made by others, that Polygamy is openly taught and practiced by the Mormons in that territory; that it is so interwoven with the very threads of society, that it is impossible to mix in social life at all without encountering it at every turn!

Judge Z. Snow has approved the course of gov. Young, in filling vacancies caused by the return of officers appointed by the President and Senate, and a Court has been opened there. We are indebted to Judge Snow for a copy of the Deseret News of Nov. 15, containing, among other things, an account of the trial of Howard Egan for the murder of Jas. Monroe, who had seduced Egan's wife. The trial results in the acquittal of Egan, mainly because the Mountain law there is, that a man guilty of such a crime ought to suffer death.


Note: The Utah Mormons' innovation of "Mountain law," as a substitute for English Common Law in their courts, was short-lived. Once the latest batch of Federal judges were ensconced in Utah Territory, the regular U. S. legal system was again put back into place. Interestingly, English Common Law disallows bigamy and polygamy, while the Mormons' self-styled "Mountain law" ignored the illegalities of these practices altogether.

==> Perry E. Brocchus, one of the Judges who fled Utah some time since, and refused to go to his post, is out in the Washington Union with a long letter, condemning the action of the Administration, and denying its power to remove him.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Death of Aaron Wright

It becomes our painful duty to chronicle the death of this pioneer, a long-honored and worthy citizen. He died at 12 o'clock on Thursday last, in the 79th year of his age, after a very brief illness. Mr. Wright settled here in 1798, and at the time of his death was the oldest resident of the township. In an early day he was an active and prominent citizen, and enjoyed largely the esteem and confidence of his neighbors, and among the early pioneers was distinguished for his public efforts and acts of benevolence. For many years entrusted with the office of magistrate, it gave him an opportunity for an extensive acquaintance, and his counsel and advice was not unfrequently sought. In all the relations of life he sustained an unblemished character, and his home was always the welcome home of the pioneer, many of whom survive him, and deeply mourn his decease. And although he was not a professed follower of Christ, his assistance was never withheld in promoting the cause of the Church, and Ministers and laymen always met a cheerful reception and a hospitable entertainment at his board. When the country was new and an almost unbroken wilderness, his house was opened for religious meetings, and as often his services and time was tendered in inviting his far distant neighbors to assemble under his roof to listen to the Gospel from some Missionary who then visited this section at regular intervals. As a citizen he enjoyed the esteem of all, and his labors and pecuniary means were generously contributed in promoting the interests of our village, entitling him to regard as a public benefactor. He lived a long life of usefulness and his sun has gone down dimmed with age, leaving behind him to mourn his loss a widow and two children, and a large and numerous connection and acquaintances.


Note 1: The genealogical entries in the Zaphna Lake family Bible say that Aaron Wright "died the 28th December 185[3] aged 7[8]." The date given is perhaps his burial day, rather than his actual day of passing, which the newspaper implicitly records as Nov. 10, 1853. This entry places his birth in the year 1775. The Bible entry for Aaron's birth reads: "Aaron Wright, father to Harriet, wife of Z[aphna]. Lake was born the 19th of March, A.D. 1775." In other words, at the time of his death, Aaron Wright's age was about 78 years and 8 months, placing him in the "in the 79th year of his age."

Note 2: The grave marker now in Conneaut Cemetery replaces earlier monuments for Mr. and Mrs. Wright and the inscriptions on the new stone were not copied correctly (for example her age at death is shown as "22," while other records show it was 79. The replacement inscription reads "75" for his age at death, but the original may well have read "78." Probably the Bible and newspaper information is the most reliable, making 1775 his birth year.

Note 3: For more information on this "Conneaut witness" see his web-page in the online "Spalding Saga" historical series.

MORMON CHILDREN. -- Of all the children that come under our observation, we must in candor say, that those of the Mormons are the most profane. Circumstances connected with travel, with occupations in a new house, and desultory life, may in part account for this; but when a people make pretensions to raising up a "holy generation," and are commanded to take wives for the purpose, we naturally look at the quality of the fruit produced by the doctrines; and surely, they should not complain of the Scripture rule, "By their fruits ye shall know them." -- Lieut. Gunnison.


Note: The above quotation occurs under the sub-title, "Effect of Plurality on the Young" in Chapter 8 of Gunnison's 1852 book, The Mormons.

THE  "ANGEL  GABRIEL."
_____

The biography of the "Angel Gabriel" has been published in New York, from which we make the following extract of this eccentric character:

The name of this eccentric and peripatetic orator is [Saunders] McSwish. His fatehr was a native of Scotland... Embarking on board a Bristol vessel, he first landed at Jamaica in the West Indies... as the Baptist denomination was here more popular and numerous than his former sect, he left the Methodists and came out a deeply immersed Baptist. He left Jamaica and next started a dancing school in a small village, during which time he first heard of the flourishing Mormon settlement at Nauvoo, Illinois, and immediately determined to push his fortunes in that direction. He arrived in Philadelphia just at the period of the Native American excitement there, and concealing his origin... became the editor of a nativist paper. He gave up all idea of following Joe Smith, as a harvest here was already ripe for the reaper. He came to New York, had just money to purchase a brass horn, which he has continued to blow until his name has filled the earth...


Note: "Sandy" McSwish was evidently baptized a Mormon in McGrawsville, New York, in the mid-1850s. An 1884 biographical sketch includes this information: "Sandy was born on the Isle of Skye, Sept. 3, 1809. He was bound apprentice to a weaver. His father having died, his mother married a Baptist minister named Orr. Sandy joined a company of strolling players; afterwards was a Methodist preacher; and then came to America and joined the Mormons. After following various avocations, he finally began preaching in public places against popish authority and foreign influence. He had a horn or trumpet which he blew to attract an audience, hence the name "Gabriel."

DR. D. HULBURT,

Professor of the Eclectic Theory and Practice of Medicine,

Would respectfully inform the public that he has located at Kirtland, for the purpose of practicing his profession. He has for a long period enjoyed the benefit of a large practice, and has bestowed much attention upon chronic and nervous maladies, and for the last seven years has been laboring zealously in the field of Medical Reform. He has become satisfied from experience that the Eclectic plan of Medication (with the organic remedies) has many and great advantages over all other systems. He invites all who are sufferers from any disease that has resisted the ordinary means, to try his rational and scientific method of treating the sick.

He is prepared to attend to all calls at a distance. Patients wishing to remain with him can be accomodated with board and treatment on the most reasonable terms. The best of reference given.
  Kirtland, Sept. 4, 1854.


Note: Though the identity of the above advertised person has yet to be firmly established, there is reason to assume that he was D. P. Hurlbut (1809-1883) the infamous anti-Mormon statement-collector of 1833. See notes for the Oct. 18th issue of the Painesville Telegraph for a further discussion of this subject.

Note 2: For an earlier advertisement in a New York newspaper, which may have been placed by the same botanical physican, see the Auburn Free Press of Feb. 23, 1831.

MARRIED

On the 15th at Kirtland, by mutual consent, PHILETUS S. BLACKMON, of Painesville, and Miss JULIA HULBURT, of the former place.

---

==> The result of the election has sadly disgusted the editor of the Plain Dealer with politics. He offers to give away his Rooster, and in his paper of the 12th favors his readers with a column and a half of argument in favor of the Mormon doctrine of Plurality of Wives...


Note 1: The 1854 union between Mr. Philetus S. Blackmon and Miss Julia Hurlbut was given more detailed publicity in a contemporary article (probably reprinted from a late Oct. Cleveland paper) published in the Nov. 1, 1854 issue of the Rochester Daily American:  "SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE. -- A man by the name of P. S. Blackman, of Painesville, and a young lady by the name of Julia Hurlburt, daughter of Dr. Hurlburt, of Kirtland, were spiritually married at the latter place on Sunday, Oct. 15. The ceremony consisted of matrimonial declarations made by themselves in the presence of friends, about fifty being present. The services consisted of the following poetical announcement: -- 'Have you seen the morning kiss the opening blossom? Thus did our spirits meet and at the first interview; and as the inevitable elements of nature unite and blend in one harmonious impulse; so are our spirits [affinitized] into one accordant living force. Whoever are thus united by the eternal laws of affinity, naught has authority to separate. We thus introduce ourselves unto you in the relation of husband and wife.'"

Note 2: The "Dr. Hurlburt" (or "Hulburt") referred to in the Rochester news item was the same person who advertised his newly established Kirtland botanical medical practice in the Telegraph of Oct. 11th. It appears likely that he was D. Philastus Hurlbut, the infamous anti-Mormon researcher who contributed so much source material to E. D. Howe's 1834 Mormonism Unvailed. D. P. Hurlbut married Maria Woodbury in 1834 and they eventually settled at Gibsonburg, Sandusky Co., Ohio. The couple's family appears on the 1850 Federal Census report for that place. However, the 1860 census shows D. P. Hurlbut living at Gibsonburg with another lady named "Diana" and with several children who were not products of his marriage with Maria Woodbury. It appears that Hurlbut temporarily left Sandusky Co. and returned to his old haunts around Kirtland, in 1853-54, after he was ejected from his position as a minister in the Sandusky Conference of the United Brethren church. Whether his new consort was from Gibsonburg or had all the time been living in Kirtland remains unclear, but it is likely that she was an early Ohio convert to Spiritualism and that the "fifty present" at her daughter's "wedding" were residents of Geauga and Lake counties -- perhaps mostly Diana's old friends. Julia may have been Diana's child by a previous association, or she may have been D. P. Hurlbut's actual daughter, born prior to his union with Maria Woodbury. A "Julia Hurlbut" married George Hall near Kirtland on Oct. 22, 1845. If Hurlbut's daughter Julia was already married, that small fact would not have prevented her from entering into extra-legal "spiritual wifery" with Mr. Philetus Swift Blackmon, late of Farmersville, Cattaraugus Co., New York. Although the union produced at least three children, it was evidently never recorded at the Lake County court house, an indication that it was not licensed, as would have been the case for a regular Spiritualist or Swedenborgian wedding

Note 3: If the 1854 Kirtland "Doctor" was indeed D. P. Hurlbut, he did not remain for very long in the Kirtland area. In their 1908 History of Kane County, Ill., R. Wait Joslyn and Frank W. Joslyn give passing mention to "Drs. D. Hurlbut and P. S. Blackman" having "settled in Aurora in the fall of 1858, for a stay of several months..." (vol. I p. 527). This information was likely derived from an 1858 newspaper advertisement for the two "doctors'" practice in northeastern Illinois. By 1860 D. P. Hurlbut again living at Gibsonburg, maintaining a household with Diana and their several little ones. The couple were then Spiritualists, along with at least one of D. P. Hurlbut's older children. In 1867 his daughter Phoebe married Leander Franklin and went to live on his farm near the hamlet of Rollersville, which lies about four miles southwest of Gibsonburg. Later that same year, D. P. Hurlbut was chosen as Rollersville's delegate to Ohio's first annual Spiritualist convention. Mr. Hurlbut's old associate, Eber D. Howe, attended as the Spiritualist delegate from Painesville.

Note 4: D. P. Hurlbut's reported early life in Penn-Yan, New York may receive some support from the fact that the Rochester Daily American's news item, on his daughter's marriage, was picked up and printed in abbreviated form by the Penn-Yan Yates County Whig. This reprint appeared on Nov. 9, 1854. For an earlier advertisement in a Penn-Yan area newspaper, which may have been placed by this same botanical physican, see the Auburn Free Press of Feb. 23, 1831.

MELANCHOLY. -- Mr. Joseph Coe, of Kirtland, was killed on Tuesday of last week, in the following shocking manner. He went into his field in the afternoon for the purpose of catching his Bull, which he had frequently done, and being absent unusually long, search was made for him, when his body was found mangled in a shocking manner. It appeared that the animal had thrown Mr. Coe to the ground and jumped upon his breast, which doubtless caused his death almost instantly. His clothes were nearly stripped from his body, and his flesh, in many places, torn off.

Mr. C was in the 70th years of his age. He leaves a wife and four children.


Note 1: This same notice also appeared in a late Oct. issue of the Willoughby Independent.

Note 2: Joseph Coe (1784-1854) was an 1830 New York convert to Mormonism. He was a member of the 1831 Mormon expedition to Jackson Co., Missouri, to dedicate the new "Zion." In Kirtland Coe became a member of first Mormon High Council and was one of the elders who helped lay the cornerstones of the Temple. After joining the dissenting party of Latter Day Saints, he was excommunicated by Joseph Smith loyalists at the end of 1837 (see also, the William R. Coe collection of Mormon documents in the Beinecke Library of Yale University).

UTAH. -- The Utah News congratulates the Mormons upon the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, for it indicates that the majority in Congress are willing to allow inhabitants of Territories the same privilege in regulating their internal policy as are allowed to those who live in the States.

The correspondence of the Missionaries scattered over the world occupies much space in the News, and it is astonishing how Mormon Apostles have gone into every part of the habitable glove, making converts. Elder Jessee Haven writes from Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope, and says:

"Many of the women here, as in many other places would like to join the Latter Day Saints if they had a plurality of husbands, or men, instead of plurality of wives."


Notes: (forthcoming)

The famous Brigham Young, the Governor of Utah, and Grand High Priest of the Mormons, came near having an inglorious end put to his career, in August last. He went down into his well to recover a lost bucket, when the kerbing tumbled in, the earth followed, and Brigham Young became, for the once, a subterranean Saint. But the zeal of his followers would not permit any such finish to the life of their most faithful shepherd. Spades and shovels were brought into requisition; the harem of the buried Governor assembled in force to aid the saving efforts of the male members of the flock, and, in about two hours, they had the gratification of pulling him out, like a forked radish, from his sub-soil bed. He preached that night from the text -- "It is well with me."


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> Accounts from the Sacramento Valley, Cal. say, that the Grasshoppers are destroying the crops there, as well as in Utah. Accounts also state that they are finding gold and silver on Sweet Water river, on the plains, and that the Mormons were at work damming and turning that stream from its bed.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Mormon Principles

Appear to be extending to New York. We notice by telegraphic despatches, and other sources, the Fourierites, having failed in their plan of new modelling society by forming Communities, have started a new sect, calling themselves "Free Lovers."... The details of their acts are horrible. Its beastiality comes up to the worst accounts we have had from the Mormons at Salt Lake.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE PUBLIC LANDS. -- We have nominally 1,400,000 square miles of territory, say 8 or ten hundred millions of acres, but 5/6th of it valueless. The government cannot now -- is unable to supply the demand to actual settlers, at $1.25: this is owing to the grants made to States, companies, and soldiers. In Utah there are 34,000 Mormons occupying land without a title, and there is no likelihood that for 5 years to come it can be surveyed and sold.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> The Mormons of Utah have founded a new settlement on Salmon river, near the Rocky mountains. -- Salmon river is nowhere near Utah. In fact, it is a long distance from their territory in the heart of Oregon, and thus the new Mormon settlement is a new movement, and not a mere branch of any of the Mormon settlements near the border.


Note: Fort Limhi was founded in June, 1855, on a tributary of the Salmon River, by the Utah Mormons, as a mission to the "Lamanites" of Oregon Territory. At the height of its activity the settlement had less than 40 white inhabitants. It was abandoned at the time "Johnson's Army" was marching on Salt Lake City, leaving only the memory of its name in Idaho's "Lemhi County."

==> GEO. A. SMITH, "Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is engaged in his work, and extracts appear in the Deseret News. Some items will be of interest to our readers hereabout.

HISTORY OF KIRTLAND MORMONISM. -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was organized in Manchester, New York, on the 6th of April, 1830, and was then composed of six members, who were baptized by immersion under the hands of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, who received the apostleship by commandment from God and the administration of heavenly messengers, and were the first elders of the church.

Through the labors of Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Oliver Cowdery and other elders, who had been ordained, branches were established in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, the British provinces and the New England States.

Large branches of the Church was established in Kirtland, Geauga County, Ohio, and, the spirit of persecution pursuing all the branches to a very great extent, the Saints commenced gathering to Kirtland.

On March 25, 1832, Joseph Smith and Elder Sidney Rigdon were dragged from their beds at midnight, in the town of Hiram, Portage County, Ohio, daubed with tar and feathers, and severely injured. Aqua fortis was poured into President Joseph Smith's mouth, and he was held by the throat until left for dead. One of his children was sick with the measles, and being in bed with him, was thereby exposed to the night air, and died almost immediately; she may, therefore, be called the first martyr of this dispensation.

In June, 1833, a commencement was made for the building of a Temple in Kirtland.

In the fall of 1833, a printing press was established in Kirtland, Ohio, where Oliver Cowdery commenced the republication of the Evening and Morning Star.

The Temple in Kirtland was so far completed as to be dedicated on 27th of March, 1836; 416 Elders being present in a general council on the evening of the dedication. This Temple is a stone building, 89 feet by 60, the walls 50 feet high, and tower 110 feet high. There are two main halls, 54 feet by 65 in the inner court, four vestries in the front, and five school rooms in the attic. The whole building was well finished, and a fine specimen of architecture.

In June, 1837, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Willard Richards and Joseph Fielding started from Kirtland on a mission to the British Islands.

In 1837 the greater portion of the Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, moved to Missouri.

In December the printing office in Kirtland was destroyed by fire, which was the work of an incendiary.


Note: The extract given above was taken from the Deseret news of Sept. 5, 1855. There the writer, Apostle George A. Smith, mistakenly calls the child who died in 1832 a girl. See B. H. Roberts' correction of this mistake in the Deseret Weekly of Apr. 1, 1893.

==> The Mormons are taking the incipient steps for applying for admission into the Union as a State. Can they be admitted with Polygamy;   never.

Notes: (forthcoming)

==> HON. JOSIAH QUINCY, JR.'s LECTURE -- THE MORMONS. -- The Hon. Josiah Quincy, Jr., delivered before the Young Men's Library Association last evening at Chapin's Hall, one of the most interesting discourses which have ever been listened to by a Cleveland audience. The hall was crowded to excess, in spite of the irregularities and indifferent success which has heretofore lately attended the management of the course.

The lecturer bore the marks of great intellectual endowments, manly character, and high cultivation in his personal appearance. With a commanding figure, and somewhat patrician features, Mr. Quincy united a clear and sonorous voice and faultless diction. His subject is not entirely unfamiliar to the public; he, therefore, gave a rapid and yet comprehensive outline of the history of the Latter Day Saints and their Prophet, the great Yankee, Joseph Smith.

About 1813, a Presbyterian clergyman, Solomon Spaulding, a graduate of Dartmouth College, amused himself in writing a purely romantic work in the quaint style of the Scriptures, suggested by the obscure origin of the North American Indians. It supposed the reappearance of Christ to the lost tribes of Israel, a new revelation to them, their wanderings, voyages across the ocean, their arrival in America, their destruction in time, and the burial of the records by the last Prophet, the son of Mormon, in the hill Cumorah, to be preserved for the fullness of time. The book, after amusing his friends, was afterwards taken to Pittsburgh and was about being published by one Patterson when the author died, and through Sidney Rigdon it fell into Joe Smith's hands, who transformed it into the Mormon Bible. The pretended discovery of the plates in the hill near Palmyra, N. Y., their translation by the aid of the great spectacles, Urim & Thummim, the gathering of believers, the settlements in Missouri, their persecutions, the building of Nauvoo, the transformation of the Vermont Yankee into the great Prophet, Civil Ruler and Military Chief of this singular people, were interspersed with many interesting passages of novelty and witty comment.

The location of the Mormons at Kirtland, in Lake county, seems to have escaped the lecturer, a fact of which many of his hearers are well reminded of at times by ticklers of the Kirtland Bank, Jo Smith, President, Sidney Rigdon, Cashier. Nor did he mention the first persecution from the Gentiles of Hiram, Portage county, where the Prophet was once dragged from his bed, and after being severely handled, tarred and feathered.

The most interesting passage in the lecture, was Mr. Quincy's very amusing narrative of a day spent at Nauvoo, in May 1844. He was with his party on a voyage up the Mississippi, and was received and entertained in the most gracious manner by the Prophet who not only escorted them to all his public buildings and museums of the mummies whose inscriptions he had deciphered, but preached a sermon to an extemporaneous audience for their amusement and edification. The Yankee displayed itself in the remark which closed the mummy show, that "persons to whom it was opened usually left a quarter with his mother," but the man with the head to contrive, voice to persuade and hand to execute, was testified by his wonderful influence and its great results. His martyrdom occurred about forty days after this visit. The exodus to the Great Salt Lake Valley, and the description of Utah, its scenery, city, domestic institutions and present relations to the country and the Union, were described and commented upon in an instructive manner.... The lecturer closed with the prediction that should, in another century, the question be asked what American citizen had exercised the greatest influence over the minds and destiny of a large portion of his fellow countrymen in the 19th century, it is not impossible and it is altogether very probable that the answer will justly be the Prophet, Priest, and Ruler, Joseph Smith.


Notes: (forthcoming)

SCHISM AMONG THE MORMONS. -- Elder John Hyde, hitherto one of the leading spirits among the Latter Day Saints, who was sent to the Sandwich Islands to convert the heathen to the many wife system, has renounced the Mormon faith, and is engaged in exposing its fallacies. Among other charges, that of falsifying the census of the Territory is made. The ex-elder says that there are not much over half as many inhabitants in Utah as the census returns would indicate. Names of deceased persons, names of disciples who never came there, and those who have long since gone away, have been retained to swell the aggregate to the required seventy thousand.


Note: For a report of John Hyde's initial tilt against the Mormons in Hawaii, see the Oct. 25, 1856 issue of The Polynesian. The Ohio Repository editor evidently gleaned his information on Hyde from either the San Francisco Western Standard of Nov. 29, 1856 or from some other California paper.

A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune denies that statement that slavery does not exist among the Mormons. He says their laws sanction it, and their religion inculcates the idea that the Africans are an inferior race of beings. They do not own many negroes, but hold in bondage not less than four hundred Indian children under the pretence of apprenticeship.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Resignation of a United States Judge.

The Hon. W. W. Drummond, one of the Justices of the supreme court of Utah Territory, has forwarded his resignation to Washington. He thus sets forth his reasons for resigning:

In the first place, Brigham Young, the governor of Utah Territory, is the acknowledged head of the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," commonly called "Mormons"; and, as such head, the Mormons look to him, and to him alone, for the law by which they are to be governed: therefore no law of Congress is by them considered binding in any manner.

Secondly. I know that there is a secret oath-bound organization among all the male members of the church to resist the laws of the country, and to acknowledge no law save the law of the "Holy Priesthood," which comes to the people through Brigham Young direct from God; he, Young, being the vicegerent of God and prophetic successor of Joseph Smith, who was the founder of this blind and treasonable organization.

Thirdly I am fully aware that there is a set of men, set apart by special order of the Church, to take both the lives and property of persons who may question the authority of the church, the names of whom I will promptly make known at a future time.

Fourthly. That the records, papers, &c., of the supreme court have been destroyed by order of the church, with the direct knowledge and approbation of Governor B. Young, and the federal officers grossly insulted for presuming to raise a single question about the treasonable act.

Fifthly. That the federal officers of the Territory are constantly insulted, harassed, and annoyed by the Mormons, and for these insults there is no redress.

Sixthly. That the federal officers are daily compelled to hear the form of the American government traduced, the chief executives of the nation, both living and dead, slandered and abused from the masses, as well as from all the leading members of the Church, in the most vulgar, loathsome, and wicked manner that the evil passions of men can possibly conceive.


Note: The above is just a partial extract from Judge Drummond's March 30, 1857 letter of resignation. The full document was published in a mid-May, 1857 issue of the New York Times and in various other newspapers, such as the May 30, 1857 issue of the Oregon City Oregon Argus.

Iniquity always finds a Hard Road to Travel in the End.

The Democratic party have rested all their arguments on "Squatter Sovereignty." What can be fairer, than to "let the people of Kansas choose for themselves what kind og government they shall have. Congress has no right to legislate for the Territories." All this was so plausible, that many of our voters gulped it down as a glorious Democratic principle -- together with Buchanan and Free Kansas.

Next we find the leaders claiming that the election of Buchannan, as an endorsement of Slavery extension by the people -- and the Judges of the Supreme Court kept back the decision on the Dred Scot case, to correspond with principles claimed to have been sanctioned by the people.

Meantime, up turns Gov. Brigham Young's case. Mormonism sets itself up against the power of the United States. The Constitution of the United States does not forbid Brigham Young having sixty wives -- and other Mormons as many as they choose. The Cincinnati Platform says nothing against it, nor against the Danite Band. What is sauce for the Goose is sauce for the Gander. What right has the United States to interfere with Brigham Young's State of Deseret, according to their own doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignty?" Ah! but they have driven out the United States officers from the Territory, and have destroyed and burned the public Records. Brigham Young claims that he is God's Vicegerent on earth, and sets up a higher law than any other on earth. His edicts are to be obeyed, even to the shedding of blood. No matter, according to the Democratic doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty, the Mormons must choose just such a Government as pleases them. But notwithstanding all that, the Administration is in dreadful labor about Utah. Will Mr. Buchanan send troops and give the Mormons drum head Court Martial? What else can he do? Or must Mormon outrages continue with impunity?

The great Democratic party are wofully [ensnared] in their own traps. Had they been [-----st], they might have been saved from such conflicts. But in that case Buchanan could not have been elected.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Brigham Young and his Wives.
_________

BY  JOHN  HYDE,  LATE  RESIDENT  AT  SALT  LAKE.

Let us pay Brother Brigham a visit. It is four o'clock in the afternoon, and Brigham is most probably at his office, and will receive us affably. We pass the Tithing Office; notice that it is a large adobe building, with several offices attached where the workmen obtain their flour and provisions. We observe a group of women, with generally common and pale faces, who are waiting for their "men's pay," which they have to almost beg from the surly fellows who attend them. These small houses we pass next are the mansions in which D. W. Wells' wives reside. They are almost mud hovels. Mr. Wells is a "prophet, seer, and revelator," as well as second counselor to Brigham. He has some six ladies in his sanctified harem; two of them are sisters, and report says they often manage to get up anything but the heavenly scenes befitting such a paradise begun. We next come to Brigham's orchard. He is a great lover of fruit, and has a great family who are great lovers of fruit too. They, however are carefully excluded from the orchard; peach trees and apple trees would soon be desolate else. Here is the "Lion House." This is a long house, with the first stiry of stone. In front, on top of this first story, is a very well sculptured lion, with his head dropped onto his stretched paw. -- This is intended to represent Brigham Young -- "quite but watchful." In this house some seventeen or eighteen of the prophet's wives reside....

We open the gate, walk up the steps, when the door opens, and face to face, on his own door sill, we confront the famous prophet Brigham Young.

In person he is above the medium height and a little inclined to corpulency. He is dressed in black cloth, and although the air is very warm, he is well wrapped up in an overcoat. His habits of life make him very sensitive to the slightest changes in the atmosphere. He has suffered a good deal in his younger days, and this with the cares of his family -- for his children are very refractory -- begin to weigh heavily upon him. His constant struggles and difficulties with the U. S. officers not only try his patience, but also wear his body. His consuming anxiety about his object of ambition -- the establishment of an independent kingdom, -- and his efforts to maintain the people in constant and implicit submission, are sufficient to leave their mark on any man's physique. he is now fifty six years old, and, although young looking in features, still evinces his age in person. His face is indicative of penetration and fierceness. Some ladies think him very handsome; but his lower lip, if nothing else, eminently betrays the sensual voluptuary. To strangers he is very courteous, bit easily offended by the slightest allusion to the people of their polygamy... [a fanciful conversation follows]...

There sits another person... She is a fine-looking woman, although now past age. She illustrates another class of Brigham's wives. That is Mrs. Cobb. She saw, heard, believed, and loved Brigham Young; embraced Mormonism, and ran away from her husband, a respectable gentleman in Massachusetts, carrying off her daughter... She arrived at Council Bluffs and married Brigham Young. Her husband, hald-crazed, endeavored to obtain his child but was baffled and out manoeovered, and they got safely to Salt Lake. She is now a "mother in Israel," and her daughter, if not married to Brigham himself, will probably become second or third wife to one of his boys.... (under construction)


Note: Compare the above, extended narrative, from an 1857 issue of Harper's Weekly, with the shorter, more abrupt descriptions of Young's domestic situation, as provided in John Hyde's 1857 book.

The Prospect of a Mormon War.

From present appearances the danger of a war with the Mormons is imminent. Despatches have been received by the government, confirming the destruction of a supply train [belonging] to the United States Expedition to Utah.

The Mormons were making preparations to oppose the troops. They have burnt off the grass for a distance of two hundred miles [around] Salt Lake City, for the purpose of cutting off feed for the government [------s]. Brigham Young has declared that Col. Johnson and his troops shall not enter the Territory, and has openly defied the U. S. authority. The Mormons in California were selling out their property at a sacrifice and emugrating to Utah. They have eight tons of gun-powder, and over a ton of revolvers, which had been purchased from time to time to be taken along with them. Great fears are now entertained there, from the insufficiency of the present force under Col. Johnson, owing to the Administration's devoting [sic, diverting?] a portion of the troops to Kansas to enforce border ruffianism, the Mormons will, by overpowering numbers, defeat the expedition; and, in such a case, it will amount to a massacre; for, being influenced by religious fanaticism, they will give no quarter. -- Leader.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Latest from California.

                                                New Orleans, Nov. 28.
... It is supposed that the accounts of the Indian depredations in Carson Valley were exaggerated.

Further news from the plains confirms the belief of complicity of the Mormons with the late massacres.

The papers assert that an efficient army could readily be raised in California to proceed against the Mormons...


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Mormons and their War.

A letter from Mrs. Huddleson, of the overland company to California, gives an account of the frequent attacks they suffered from the bands of Indians and Mormons, who were ranged about, pillaging and murdering unprotected trains. A Mr. Holloway, from Illinois, had his wife and child killed before his eyes, and was robbed of $1,600, escaping only with his life, severely wounded. They found a woman belonging to another train, dead by the wayside, with her scalp taken off.

A Mormon woman in Salt Lake wrote to her husband, Sept. 4th, at San Francisco:

"All the men are preparing for war, both old and young. Some companies have gone out to meet the enemy: more are ready to go when called for. The carrying companies are all coming in; what they cannot bring with them they destroy. They have burned hundreds of tons of hay at the stations. Brother Brigham says that if the brethren will stand by him he will never let the gentiles come into the valleys. He says, before they shall come here he will burn every house, fence and haystack and flee to the mountains. We will make a Moscow of the cities and towns in these valleys, and a Potter's field of every canyon that our enemies come into. Brother Kimball says that all the women must have a dirk knife, so I wish you to bring me one. You must bring plenty of powder and lead. Brother Brigham says that if every saint will live their religion, we will never be driven from these valleys. We shall stay here until the time comes to go to Jackson county. We shall no more be called the traitors of Utah, but the free people of Deseret."

John Hyde, Jr., the seceding Mormon apostle [sic - elder?], writes in the N. Y. Herald, that the Mormons are sternly infatuated, are well armed and disciplined and supplied with the munitions of war, and will prove much more formidable than the Government seems to expect. His plan of the campaign is, to repeal the Utah organic act, proclaim martial law over the Territory, call for volunteers in California and Oregon, offer a reward for the apprehension of Young and his chief confederates, and allow those Mormons who prefer to leave the country rather than submit to the laws to do so. -- He considers the present small force approaching Utah entirely at the mercy of the Mormons, and believes they will be cut off or be made prisoners of war, and that this success will embolden the Mormons to persevere in their rebellion.

A gentleman just arrived at Washington from Leavenworth, brings intelligence that the Mormons had raised forces and blockaded all the avenues to Salt Lake City by the route taken by our forces, and that of Fremont in 1843, in many cases rendering the canyons impassable by means of rocks and other impediments. Young is the agent of Russell & Waddell, the contractors whose trains were burned, and denies his imputed agency in this transaction. He declares that it is not the design of the Mormons to shed blood unless provoked to do so by similar action on the part of the Government. It is believed that they will endeavor to possess of the horses, mules and stores of the expedition, in order to [effect?] a removal early in the spring. From the exposed position now occupied by the advance, this will be a comparatively easy task, unless the army should fall back upon Fort Laramie.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Mormonism.

As this disgusting compound of sensuality, despotism and ferociousness is continually thrusting itself upon public attention, it may interest some of our readers to recall the circumstances in which it originated. The calamity has come upon us as one of the results of that excessive freedom in the exercise of which we throw [open] our empire to all manner of immigrants from the old world; for this anomalous population is chiefly recruited from Europe.

Rev. Solomon Spaulding, a graduate of Dartmouth College, was distinguished for a lively imagination and a love of history. He lived in a part of Ohio abounding with mounds and ruins of old forts, and took much interest in the study of these antiquities. To beguile his hours of retirement he conceived the idea of giving a historical sketch of the race about which there was so much mystery. It was of course a fanciful undertaking, -- giving wide scope for the exercise of imagination, and tempting him to indulge in an antique style while describing ancient things.

The Old Testament containing the most ancient books in the world, he found it convenient to imitate in style. He therefore launched out at will into the region of free historical romance. This was 1812. His neighbors hearing of the progress of his curious work, would come to his house and hear portions of it read. It claimed to have been written by one of the lost nation, to have been recovered from the earth, and was christened with the title of 'Manuscript Found.' This self-amusing gentleman, pretended to be decyphering the mysteries of the disinterred manuscript, and regularly reported progress to his neighbors.

From the classics and from ancient history he introduced many uncouth and unaccustomed names which awakened curiosity.

Mr. S. removed to Pittsburg, and found a friend in the person of an editor to whom he showed his manuscript. The editor was pleased, borrowed it, kept it, and offered to print it, if Mr. S. would make out a suitable title-page. He promised also to make it a source of profit. Mr. S. declined any such use of it.

Sydney Rigdon, who has since figured so largely among the Mormons, was then employed in the editor's printing office; he inspected the manuscript, and had an opportunity to copy it. It was returned to the author who died in 1816. But the influence he had unwittingly originated did not die with him.

There is no doubt, but that Rigdon took a copy of the whole or parts of the manuscript. He appeared in Palmyra, N. Y., in 1829, working at his trade. About this time there began to be talk of certain mysterious 'plates' being found in that region. They had been discovered, it was said, by Joseph Smith, Jr., in the bank of the Erie Canal, near Palmyra. Here Smith and Rigdon conspired to start the fraud. Smith was a man of low cunning, vulgar and sensual in his habits, a fitting accomplice for Rigdon, both being ready to execute any falsehood. Joe was to be set up as a leader, and to assume the title of Prophet.

It was given out that Joe was engaged in translating the plates. This was in 1829. -- Some followers were obtained, principally the ignorant and vicious, and the dishonest who had no character to lose. They called themselves the Church of the Latter Day Saints, and organized at Manchester, under Joe Smith, who issued an edition of 1,200 [sic] copies of the 'Book of Mormon,' at Palmyra. Some three or four seemingly respectable men of that region joined them, which attracted more attention.

Smith and his followers selected Kirtland, Ohio, as their 'City of Refuge,' by inspiration, as the blasphemer said -- the Lording intending and directing that the temple should be built there.

Two Hundred composed the first settlement. -- They called their book the 'Golden Bible.' Smith founded a bond bank, which of course failed, and he found it necessary to move farther west. Thither has been the disastrous progress of those miserable impostors, whose subsequent history is known to the world.

It would seem as if there was no form of folly or impiety which some human beings will not embrace. Polygamy, blasphemy, rebellion, murder are the natural fruits of this wretched conspiracy, which is troubling the whole land. -- N. Y. Journal of Commerce.


Notes: (forthcoming)

An Object of Mormon Vengeance.

Eds. Com. -- It will be remembered by many of your readers that Parley P. Pratt (one of the twelve apostles of the Salt Lake Mormon Church,) was killed by Mr. McLain [sic] after he had taken the wife of McLain unto himself. The children of Mr. and Mrs. McLain were secretly taken away from the guardianship of their grandparents, (the father and mother of Mrs. McLain,) for the purpose of taking them to Utah. To prevent these children from being carried off to Utah, I communicated a knowledge of the facts in my possession to their grandfather. I neither expected or advocated the killing of Pratt, but I have obtained indisputable evidence that the Danites of Brigham Young's church have decreed that I shall share in the fate of P. P. Pratt.

The public, and more especially the constituted authorities of this city, therefore, understand where they may find the guilty party, in case they succeed in their malicious and murderous designs. I can, however, look back with delight on the part that I performed for the deliverence of these children from Salt Lake degradation, altho' I know that it may cost my life, unless the publication of these facts prevents it. -- If I am sacrificed for this act, I shall die a martyr's death, for I never sought the life of Parley P. Pratt, and I detest the wicked practices of Salt Lake Mormonism, inasmuch as I am a believer in those principles which were formerly called Mormonism, and which the Salt Lake leaders have abandoned.

ISAAC SHEEN.    

Note: The exact title and date of the above communication from RLDS Elder Isaac Sheen to the Cincinnati Commercial remains undetermined. The text is taken from a reprint, published in the Apr. 10, 1858 issue of the Illinois Quincy Daily Whig and Republican.

The  Last  Days  of  Oliver  Cowdery.

Well known in these parts was Oliver Cowdery, Joe Smith's chief scribe and transcriber of the Book of Mormon. He flourished in Kirtland, Lake Co., as one of the Chief Elders, and was a conspicuous, though a deluded man. He died several years since, but left on record the following historical scrap, which has just come to light through the last Deseret News, from which we copy:

At a special conference at Council Bluffs, Iowa, held on the 21st of October, in the year 1848, brother Oliver Cowdery, one of the three important witnesses to the truth of the Book of Mormon, and who had been absent from the Church, through disaffection, for a number of years, and had been engaged in the practice of law, was present and made the remarks here annexed. Br. Orson Hyde presided at the said conference. Br. Reuben Miller, now Bishop of Mill Creek Ward was also present at the time and noted what he said and has furnished us what he believes to be a verbatim report of his remarks, which we take pleasure in laying before our readers: -- "Friends and Brethren, --
My name is Cowdery, Oliver Cowdery. In the early history of this Church I stood identified with her, and one in her councils. True it is that the gifts and callings of God are not without repentance; not because I was better than the rest of mankind was I called; but, to fulfill the purposes of God, he called me to a high and holy calling.

I wrote, with my own pen, the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as he translated it by the gift and power of God, by the means of the Urim and Thummim, or, as it is called by that book, "Holy interpreters." I beheld with my eyes, and handled with my hands the gold plates from which it was transcribed. I also saw with my eyes and handled with my hands the "holy interpreters." That book is true. Sidney Rigdon did not write it; Mr. Spaulding did not write it; I wrote it myself as it fell from the lips of the Prophet. It contains the everlasting gospel, and came forth to the children of men in fulfillment of the revelations of John, where he says he saw an angel come with the Everlasting Gospel to preach to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. It contains principles of salvation; and if you, my hearers, will walk by its light and obey its precepts, you will be saved with an everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God on high. Brother Hyde has just said that it is very important that we keep and walk in the true channel, in order to avoid the sand bars. This is true. The channel is here. The Holy Priesthood is here.

"I was present with Joseph when an holy angel from God came down from heaven and conferred on us, or restored, the lesser or Aaronic Priesthood, and said to us, at the same time, that it should remain upon the earth while the earth stands.

"I was also present with Joseph when the higher or Melchisedek Priesthood was conferred by the holy angel from on high. This Priesthood was then conferred on each other, by the will and commandment of God. This Priesthood, as was then declared, is also to remain upon the earth until the last remnant of time. This holy Priesthood, or authority, we then conferred upon many, and is just as good and valid as though God had done it in person.

"I laid my hands upon that man -- yes, I laid my right hand upon his head -- (pointing to Bro. Hyde) and I conferred upon him this Priesthood, and he holds that Priesthood now. He was also called through me, by the prayer of faith, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Before his death Cowdery was fully restored to the Church, and died full in the faith of the Latter Day Saints.


Notes: (forthcoming)

MORMON  TIMES  IN  KIRTLAND.
______

The Former "Stake of Zion."
______

Something About Joe Smith, Brigham Young,
Sidney Rigdon, the Steamboat in the
Air, Plates of Gold, the Temple,
"the Unknown Tongue," &c.

At this time almost everything pertaining to the Mormons and Mormonism is of interest....


Notes: (forthcoming)

MORMON  TIMES  IN  KIRTLAND.
______

The Former "Stake of Zion."
______

Something About Joe Smith, Brigham Young,
Sidney Rigdon, the Steamboat in the
Air, Plates of Gold, the Temple,
"the Unknown Tongue," &c.
______
(CONCLUDED.)

The land on which the Temple is built was donatd by John Johnson, a once zealous Mormon. he bolted before his death and became a scoffer at the Latter-Day faith....


Note: John Johnson, Sr., was born on April 11, 1779 in Chesterfield, Cheshire Co., New Hampshire. He became a Mormon early in 1831 and moved from his home in Hiram, Ohio, to Kirtland, late in 1832. He was ordained a high priest, but in September of 1837 he was dropped from the Kirtland High Council for some unspecified reason. The following year he withdrew from the Mormons, but continued living at Kirtland, where he died on July 30, 1843. See Deseret News of May 26, 1858. The above mention in the Cleveland paper may have been the first published notice of Johnson having left the Mormon Church. It is unknown whether or not he was associated with the Warren Parrish Latter Day Saint faction of 1838.

REFORMED  ORGANIZATION  OF
"LATTER-DAY  SAINTS."

Eds. Com. -- A new organization of Latter-Day Saints is springing up, which will do more to check the licentiousness and high-handed wickedness of the Salt Lake Mormon Church, than all the plans that have been proposed. A Conference, which continued for days, commenced on the 6th inst., near Stanwich [sic], De Kalb County, Ill., and although it was held at a retired farm-house, about 500 persons were in attendance. Delegates and members from nearly all parts of Illinois, and from Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, were there. This organization will not be completed until a son of Joseph Smith presides over it, but it is now sending forth elders to proclaim against the iniquities of the Salt Lake Church, as an apostacy from the faith of the Latter-Day Saints, and to preach the original doctrines of the Church. A monthly periodical will be published in this city forthwith, to be called the True Latter-Day Saints' and Anti-Polygamists' Organ. Elders are to be sent to Utah to reclaim those backsliders, and if these elders are cut down while engaged in the work, "the blood of the martyrs will be the seed of the Church." The speakers at the Conference expressed an abhorrence of the evils which had overthrown the Church, and a determination to expel such persons from the Church in the future. They spoke with extraordinary energy and Divine influence, and with unbounded love for the faithful, and also for the backsliders, and for all mankind. We hope that all good citizens will cast no obstacle in our way, while we labor for the eradication of this foul stain, and that the conductors of newspapers will make known the remedy which God hath provided for this great wickedness.     ISAAC SHEEN.


Note 1: The exact date of the above communication from RLDS Elder Isaac Sheen to the Cincinnati Commercial remains undetermined. The text is taken from a reprint, published in the Oct. 19, 1859 issue of the New York Times, which begins with this editorial preface: "The following curious statement appears in the Cincinnati Commercial.

Note 2: See also Elder Sheen's earlier letter, published in the Saturday Evening Post, in which he said: "The Salt Lake apostles also excuse themselves by saying that Joseph Smith taught the spiritual wife doctrine, but this excuse is as weak as their excuse concerning the ancient kings and patriarchs. Joseph Smith repented of his connection with this doctrine, and said it was of the devil. He caused the revelations on that subject to be burned."